DANNY Heale has confirmed he will be Canvey Island manager next season, following the Gulls’ relegation to the Ryman North.

The Canvey chief told the Echo last weekend he would sit down with chairman John Batch to discuss his future.

This came after a 2-2 draw with AFC Sudbury saw Canvey relegated from the Ryman Premier League, nine years after they won promotion.

But Heale has now decided to remain in charge, as he bids to lead the Gulls back into the division at the first time of asking.

“We are going to go with it next season,” said Heale. “We want to bounce back straight away after this season which has obviously not panned out the way we wanted it to.

“I spoke with John about it and and I agreed to remain as manager. I think we will be a in a position to bounce back next season but I just need to speak to the players now.

“We have the club’s presentation night this Sunday and after that I will be sitting down with some members of the squad to talk about their futures.

“We have had some meetings already but it is too early to say. We haven’t finalised a lot of things but we will have that sorted soon.

“But I will definitely be there with the same backroom staff, at this moment in time.”

Heale has endured a difficult four years at the helm, with a 13th place finish in his first campaign the best the club has managed under his stewardship.

However, the development of the new £300,000 clubhouse has been overseen by Heale, and he says he is looking forward to the challenges next season will pose.

“We knew it was always going to be a tough one,” he said. “There are big teams with big budgets and we had the clubhouse to think about.

“But we can’t dwell on the past. We will be a big fish in a small pond next season and there are some good sides in that division.

“Hornchurch and Maldon & Tiptree are big sides and there are plenty of tough and exciting fixtures ahead.

“It will be a lot of teams’ cup finals when they play against us and we must learn to deal with that as we look to bounce back.”